Graduation tests
Background * Suggestion from panel: Starting in 2014, public high school students in Pennsylvania might have to pass a state test to graduate. ** Mandate student proficiency by passing one of two state tests to graduate high school. Insights The panel was appointed by Gov. Ed Rendell. Offered recommendations aimed at ensuring students are ready for college and careers when they leave high school. Governor's Commission on College and Career Success is panel. Tests Students would be required to attain either a proficient or advanced on the 11th-grade Pennsylvania System of School Assessment or a to-be-developed series of state graduation competency tests in math, English, science and social studies. Suggestions from the PA panel * Enforce a rule requiring state test scores to be included in student transcripts, so students take the tests seriously. * It encourages colleges and employers to use those scores when making admission or hiring decisions. Elsewhere * Twenty-two states require high school students to pass state tests to graduate. * Additional states are considering tests. Links * Achieve Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit group working to improve high school quality. * Rendell said the panel's report presents "nothing short of the bold vision needed to truly transform Pennsylvania's high schools." Businessman Daniel Fogarty of Reading, a commission co-chairman, said it's a matter of restoring value to a high school diploma. "We don't have confidence in what the diploma tells us about basic academic skill levels," said Fogarty, the salaried personnel and development director of Carpenter Technology Corp. "It is very sad thing when you have someone with a high school diploma ... testing at the seventh or eighth grade level in reading or math." A couple of years ago, the State Board of Education began noticing a disconnect between the percentage of 11th-graders passing the PSSAs and the percentage of that class graduating. Advertisement State Board chairman Karl Girton, another commission co-chairman, said that caused concern that schools might be doing some students a disservice by issuing them diplomas "with a wink, wink, nod, nod." Requiring students to pass a state test would eliminate that. "We're really moving the system of education ahead, in my opinion, by establishing a threshold that all students must achieve," said Judy Hample, chancellor of the state-owned university system, who also co-chaired the panel. Some students might be better served by taking proficiency tests at the end of a core subject course, rather than as part of a comprehensive exam given once a year, Girton said. But this idea of using an alternative test to produce different results drew some skepticism from Craig Robbins, the principal of East Pennsboro Area High School. Robbins said he suspects learning support students and others not "academic in nature" at any school who have trouble passing the PSSA would have the same difficulty on the alternative tests. "We are trying to address that problem," Robbins said. "We're not there yet, but working hard to get there." Audrey Utley, superintendent of the Middletown Area School District, said this uniform graduation requirement would have the effect of standardizing the expectations of students across the state, "but it also creates a state curriculum." "Local control on curriculum matters is removed if they take this step," Utley said. She also voiced concern that a move to high-stakes testing could produce a large percentage of students dropping out if they can't pass a state test. Advertisement She said she hopes the state moves slowly and gives districts money to make adjustments. Experts offered different views on whether a high-stakes graduation test raises dropout rates. Girton said that in the Erie School District, the dropout rate rose when the district began requiring students to achieve passing scores on the PSSAs, but it has since gone down. Monty Neill, director of the National Center for Fair and Open Testing in Cambridge, Mass., said Massachusetts has seen its dropout rate rise since it instituted a graduation test. "There is no evidence that states with high-stakes graduation tests have better prepared college freshmen," he said. He predicted that if Pennsylvania adopts this requirement, fewer students will get diplomas, particularly those who have disabilities, are minorities or come from poor families. Alexander LaBant, a Greenwood High School senior who served on the panel, said standardized testing is probably a necessary evil. Should testing be made a requirement, he said, "it will probably cause a drag with students, but I think it will come to be accepted, just as PSSAs were when they were originally implemented, and eventually everyone will come to see the value." JAN MURPHY: 232-0668 or jmurphy@patriot-news.com - - - - Comments The Education Establishment resists measurements of student learning achievement. Many schools are failing. Introduce School Choice and School Competition. Education Improvement Tax Credits allow the person who earned the taxes, to direct his or her money to education, not only non government schools but Charter Schools. The $34 million needs to be expanded to $500 million, a very small percentage of total education costs in Penna. Encourage churches and synogogues to use their classrooms provide part-time group instruction for home-schoolers. No buiding costs, volunteers abound, expenses plummet, education improves, and children are taught by those who believe “thou shalt not steal”, a position 180 degrees removed from the current educational establishment. Expanding Education Improvement Tax Credits to $500 million would be a way of funding churches and synagogues and reducing number of students at government schools. Refunding parents part of the money they save the state by sending their kids to non-government schools, such as Catholic Schools. Every one wins, the schools save moeny by not teaching some kids and more kids will go to Catholic school because it would become more affordable. Many Catholic Schools in the region have closed. Many others are having hard times. Catholic Schools are busy concentrating on education instead of lobbying. The best way to improve school performance is to unleash the power of the market. Empower parents to choose. Engender competition, not only among schools, but among parents. The newly constituted “Special Education” sub-committee should address the needs of the truly gifted as well as those who are challenged. We need to provide alternate paths for those who are gifted and for those who are academically challenged. Compulsory attendance laws are harmful. It is not healthy to substitute the will and judgment of the state over the will and judgment of parents. Separately, different people learn differntly and all can be taught. The collectivized workforce where the best teacher and the worst teacher with same seniority get the same pay is ineffective and sucks the economic life out of Penna. I want to ask you where you all were on June 16, 1995. That was the day that Governor Ridge’s school choice bill failed in the State House by three votes. That bill, Ridge’s original attempt, would have provided a $1,000 scholarship to any student that wanted to attend a non public school in Pennsylvania. It would have cost less than the $500 million suggested here, provided some significant consumer choice for parents and students stuck in underperforming schools, and saved property taxpayers millions annually. The tax credit law in not as powerful as real school choice. Tax credits could be a catalyst of significant reform in the “post voucher” era.